


It's Not All Bad

by AL13



Series: fic a day in may [5]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Birthday, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AL13/pseuds/AL13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Prompt: can you write something where Mickey gets Ian a gift and tries to be super nonchalant about it (set before they're official in season 1 or 2 maybe)?</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Not All Bad

Mickey didn’t care. Ian had been mopey, didn’t even want sex or anything. It drove Mickey crazy, because they didn’t just hang out like that. They were in Mickey’s room, with Ian laying with his head resting at the bottom of the bed. It took a lot to get it out of him; and it didn’t matter to Mickey, Gallaghers moping was just really annoying.

"It’s my birthday," Ian confessed after another round of questioning. He went on to explain the complications within his family, and how no one was acknowledging it. Fiona was staying in the new house Steve bought while Monica tried to run their lives, and no one seemed to spend anytime at home. "There’s just a lot going on," Ian tried to reason with himself, but Mickey could tell he was bothered by it.

Mickey wasn’t going to say anything stupid, like happy birthday or any of that shit. Birthdays were stupid anyways, it was pretty much celebrating not being dead. It was a stupid event, and his birthdays were rarely celebrated, Mandy occasionally bought him candy or weed, and he did the same for her.

Ian went back home late afternoon, because Mickey was pushing him to leave. And once he was gone, Mickey was scrambling around, trying to see if there was any wrapping paper in the house, and was pleased to have found a small square left. Now it was just a matter of what do I get him? Mickey wasn’t going to spend an unreasonable amount of money on a gift, but maybe some of his leftover weed would suffice.

Mickey had an old iPod, one that had been left in a drawer, because he rarely used it. Sure, it was second hand, but it was still in okay shape. And it wasn’t a fucking gift, the iPod was of no use to him, Ian could make better use of it. He tried to reason with himself, but finally just agreed that it was a fucking gift, and he felt bad no one else had acknowledged his birthday. Of course, I had to find a way to give it to Ian without him thinking of it as a gift.

He carelessly maneuvered the wrapping to encase the iPod and the weed, and he might have used an excess of tape, but he wasn’t an expert at wrapping things.

Mandy always had a bad rep with privacy, and interrupted Mickey in the midst of trying to hide the gift until he thought of how to give it to Gallagher surreptitiously. “Whatcha got there?” She asked in her all-knowing tone.

"Nothing that fucking matters to you," he seethed and slammed it into a drawer.

"Looks to me, like it’s a present. Is it for me? You know my birthdays a couple months away, right?" Mandy spurted the questions, which was an annoyance to Mickey.

"Course I fucking know when your birthday is," he muttered. As the only person in their shitty family that cared about Mandy, it was his brotherly duty and what not, to know that kind of stuff. "Not for you, so it’s none of your business."

"Getting secretive now are we Mick." Mandy sat on the edge of his bed and swung her legs in the air while she put on her best thinking face. Mickey was second away from storming out, despite the fact that it was his room. “What, is it a girl? Didn’t know you were the one to get attached enough to go buying presents now. What is it, a birthday, an anniversary?” Mandy was pushing her luck, and Mickey hated giving out that information. Even to his sister, who was ‘dating’ Ian, because she knew he was gay, and she’d never had a boyfriend.

"Leave it the fuck alone." Mickey was agitated, not only at his sister, but because of how stupid it was to be giving Ian a present. They weren’t fucking together or stupid shit like that, that would make it all too real. He’d spent too long building up his facade.

"Just tell me who it is, and I’ll give it to them. God knows how long it’ll take before you actually walk up to someone and hand them a fucking present. It’d be a miracle.” Mickey wanted to decline that offer, but Mandy was Ian’s friend, and it would be pretty easy for her to get it to the redhead.

Mickey reached back into the drawer where he’d carelessly thrown what was now wrapped in blue, wrinkled paper. He then stood in front of Mandy, managing to tower over due to her sitting position. “Give this to Gallagher,” Mickey demanded, shoving it in her hands. “And not a fucking word.”

***

Even when Ian got home, he didn’t feel like they cared, at least he hadn’t expected much comforting from Mickey. He’d stupidly thought that someone might acknowledge that he was now 16, able to legally drive on his own, although he wasn’t expecting a car or anything expensive like that. Maybe a hug, a cake, a simple ‘happy birthday’ would have sufficed.

No one was even fucking home. Well Liam was -and seriously, how stupid were Frank and Monica to just leave him on his own- but he was too young to have remembered Ian’s birthday, he was an exception to Ian’s disappointment.

He hadn’t even been home for a half hour when someone was banging on the door. There was a wide variety of people it might be; someone after Frank, someone there to complain about something Carl did, hell, Ian wouldn’t be surprised if it was the cops. The person he was faced with though, had dark hair and a signature skimpy skirt followed by her beaming smile. “Hey Mands,” Ian greeted, trying to hide his wounded feature with a smile of delight.

"Got something for you." Mandy exposed a small disfigured rectangle that could only be described as a mess of tape with a small amount of blue wrapping paper revealed at the sides. Ian raised his eyebrows in question; Mandy definitely didn’t know his birthday, unless she asked someone else. It just wasn’t something he’d ever thought to bring up. "Not from me, I’m just the messenger." Ian knew the only person that might send something through Mandy, was the youngest male Milkovich.

"Someone needs to teach Mickey to wrap," Ian laughed. "I don’t know how to open this." A smile pierced his face as his hands fumbled to remove as much tape as possible so he might be able to tear at the paper. Mickey was the last person he expected to get anything from, but hey, his family had surprised him, Mickey could do the same. Ian felt the paper slice his skin once he finally managed to make a hole in the tape and punctured through the paper, his finger hitting something smooth. Ian dug in more, getting a good grip so that could pull the paper back farther. Underneath the mesh of things, he found an iPod -he’d have to ask Mickey for the charger sometime- and a baggie of weed, with no papers of course. Which means he was forced into sharing it with Mickey, since ‘he was providing half of the product,’ as he always claimed.

"You hit the jackpot," Mandy said happily. "What’d everyone else get you?"

"Nothing," he grumbled, remembering that out of the one person that had cared, there were six others that didn’t. "It’s whatever though." Mandy’s stare was only slightly pitiful, and Ian knew she expected less each year than he did.

***

Ian’s way of saying ‘thank you,’ was going to the Milkovich house, when he was sure that Mandy had plans to be out; which happened to be late the following night. They fucked first, with Mickey on all fours on his bed and Ian pushing rapidly into him. Then took a break for a joint -Ian’s weed, Mickey’s papers- trying to rebuild their stamina. The second time, Ian made Mickey lay on his back, something they hadn’t done before, because the one time Ian tried, he earned a half-hearted threat from Mickey. Ian didn’t dare try to kiss the dark-haired Milkovich, but took his chance to relish in Mickey’s face of pleasure.

"Thanks Mick," he said when they were done for the night, taking the suddenly straightforward approach. "You didn’t have to."

"Fuck I didn’t have to, you gave me your fucking Gallagher eyes."

"Gallagher eyes?"

"You fucking looked at me and had me falling into your damn trap." Mickey failed to immediately realize the double meaning in those words, and was glad that they were spoken naively, or they wouldn’t have been uttered at all.

"Hey, where’d the iPod charger?"

"What, I gave you an iPod, and suddenly you’re asking for more?" Mickey said, faking exasperation.

"Dick," Ian said, rolling over to bury himself in Mickey’s side.

"I’ll find it in the fucking morning." Ian huddled closer, because that implied that Mickey wasn’t going to be kicking him out right away tomorrow.


End file.
